Recovery Love

It’s True Story Tuesday! “I learned so much in treatment,” says Erika, who started using drugs at age 13 and was homeless before she found Phoenix House. “I learned how to trust and be trusted, and not just with one person but within a whole community…That was what did it, what got me clean and made me stay clean—the group of people who believed in me. I realized that Phoenix House would always be there for me. And they have been.”

To read Erika’s story, click here.

The New York Times recently published a powerful three-part exposé on halfway houses in New Jersey. Many of these institutions, celebrated as alternatives to incarceration, are following improper practices by housing violent and non-violent offenders together—often with tragic consequences.

We must remember that treatment facilities—whether halfway houses or programs like ours at Phoenix House—require significant resources.  Without the proper infrastructure, they are ineffective; in fact, the environment they provide may be no more therapeutic than jail. 

To read more, click here.

We’re always amazed by the power of education! 

Reverend Al Sharpton was correct in praising NY Governor Cuomo’s marijuana decriminalization proposal as “a step in the right direction,” but it is only the first of many steps that need to be taken to address drug abuse in our state and our nation. 

The New York police may have set an unfortunate historical precedent for discrimination, but we all know that drug use doesn’t discriminate. It’s a disease that can and does affect all kinds of people from all walks of life, and it’s common human decency to offer sick people treatment, not jail time.

To read more, click here.

When 15-year-old Alexis was five months pregnant, she was addicted to speed and weighed less than 100 pounds. When she miscarried her daughter, she hit rock bottom–and slowly began her journey to recovery. Click here to read Alexis’s amazing story.